The Social Dilemma: Navigating my highs and lows of social media use
Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Messenger, YouTube – repeat. Memes, media, updates of family and friends, updates on people I haven’t spoken to in years (and quite frankly don’t care to speak to), advertisements of things that are uninteresting to me. I have to admit, I have an addiction – to what exactly? I’m not even sure anymore. Maybe just the mindless scrolling that distracts me from life’s responsibilities. I often find myself becoming distracted from the events happening around me, including real life, in the moment, in person, conversations. This is something that I hope to work on and my wife has helped by ensuring that we plan unplugged dates to focus on each other without distractions. Which is a practice I want to continue with all relationships in my life.
On the other hand, I also use social media as a news outlet, keeping me up to date on current events I may not otherwise be aware of. It has also given me current event resources that I use as teaching resources. Sometimes I think this is a double-edged sword because of the “algorithm”, only seeing the point of view that aligns with my own and I have to look at external resources to see the “whole” story. I do make a conscious effort to look into neutral resources and teach my students how to fact check the information we are receiving.
Finding a balance between real life moments and being aware of current events has been a continuous conscious effort of mine. While it is also a conscious effort to reduce my aimless scrolling that doesn’t benefit my day to day life and only causes a distraction from real life relationships and responsibilities. I think that Social Media can be used for so many positive things, but I do think that it has a huge negative impact as well because of an image that influencers are trying to uphold and the impact that has on adult, youth and children. As an educator I think is it extremely important to become aware of the impacts of Social Media both positive and negative, while educating students how to do the same.
The Social Dilemma on Netflix put a lot of things into perspective that I had never considered before and I have used it as a teaching resource since viewing. I highly recommend watching if you haven’t yet.
One thought on “The Social Dilemma: Navigating my highs and lows of social media use”
Thank you for your thoughtful post. You bring up an excellent point about algorithms providing content that aligns with our point of view. Perhaps not everyone realizes this, or if they do, they are happy to stay within this comfortable bubble. Confirmation bias is a real problem, especially when it comes to spreading misinformation.
I have watched the Social Dilemma with my husband and kids and I also highly recommend it. I wonder if it has been used as an educational tool>